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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Lifeboat” Down in the Dirt, v190 (the 12/21 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Stardust in Hand the Down in the Dirt Sept.-Dec. 2021 issues collection book		get the 422 page Sept.-Dec. 2021 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# paperback book:

Alexander

Stephen Jordan

Anesthetic leaking away,
my heavy eyelids
blinking apart
the dark and the pain,
and my father sits next to me
for years
and doesn’t leave. His mother
pulled bread
from her coat as they
huddled underground,
wondering which buildings
would be left in the morning.
They leaned over
an endless ocean,
their stomachs always
tugging for more. I used to
carelessly eat through
a pear’s sweet flesh,
leaving misshapen cores
on my plate.
But my father
always ate straight into
the unyielding center
where it turns sour and sinewy,
seeds crushed into mash,
and he left only
the stem. Now as we float
in the Galapagos
he tires and drifts,
and the undertow begins to
pull him away.
I reach for his arm,
startle him awake,
and swim him back to the boat.

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